In its 2026 Final Payment Rule, CMS added 573 codes to the ASC Covered Procedures List (ASC-CPL). It’s a big win for the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) and its advocacy efforts. Kara Newbury, JD, ASCA’s chief advocacy officer, first and foremost views the rule through the lens of Medicare…

Tampa General Hospital (TGH) and Boston-based Mass General Brigham (MGB) this week announced a joint venture to create a "coordinated ambulatory network" serving Florida’s rapidly growing Martin, St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties, with a focus on expanding access to outpatient services including primary care, specialty care, advanced imaging, oncology…

At many ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), “doing more with less” is an existential situation. Can artificial intelligence (AI) help alleviate the situation? That’s what Emily Spooner, president and owner of ASC consulting and management firm Marisa Consulting, will explore in her session “AI-powered insights to boost efficiency and margins in…

When it comes to treating chronic pain—or pain associated with surgery—clinicians are always looking for alternatives to opioids. “There are zero advantages to chronic opioid use,” says Earl Kilbride, MD, MHA, an orthopedic surgeon at the Austin Orthopedic Institute. While the US makes up about 4.4% of the global population,…

Satisfaction of ambulatory surgery (ASC) leaders with their current jobs/positions has fallen in the past year, according to the 2025 OR Manager Career/Salary Survey. After reaching a 5-year high of 81% in 2024’s survey, the favorable satisfaction rating fell to 72%. However, that percentage aligns with surveys from several years…

It is with great excitement that we welcome you to the 2025 OR Manager Conference, taking place October 28–30 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. This year’s event is a celebration of leadership, innovation, and collaboration across perioperative leadership, and we are thrilled you are here to be part…

Robotic surgery has moved from cutting-edge to commonplace. The question is no longer whether to use robotics but when to introduce it and how to ensure adoption is efficient, affordable, and seamless for surgical teams. Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are increasingly adding robotics to their service lines, driven by the…

Office-based surgery (OBS) is one of the fastest-growing care settings in the US. From ophthalmology and dermatology to gastroenterology and even orthopedics, more procedures once limited to hospitals or ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are now being performed in medical office suites. Among many factors, the growth is being fueled by…

With the explosion of GLP-1–based therapies for type 2 diabetes and weight loss, perioperative nursing teams, especially in the preoperative and postanesthesia care areas, need to be fluent in recognizing these medications. Some patients may arrive on these agents—or even novel oral GLP-1s—and the physiologic effects, especially delayed gastric emptying,…

Growth is the goal in any ASC—growth in volume, growth in profits, and often growth to new locations. For DISC Surgery Centers, which just opened its sixth ambulatory surgery center (ASC) through parent company TriasMD, that growth has been the result of many factors. A key driver, according to Frank…